


Fathers and Sons

by danvssomethingorother



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce is trying to be a good parent, Damian has PTSD, Damian is a good parent, Damian is the oldest sibling, Dick is the youngest, Reverse Robins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29185170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvssomethingorother/pseuds/danvssomethingorother
Summary: It had been five years since Jason Todd died. Damian often felt the world had moved on, but he could not, he was stuck in a state of anger unable to forgive those involved in the death of his younger sibling including himself. He finds a second chance in the form of an orphaned acrobat and vows to mend his mistakes of the past and keep him far away from Batman and his war.(A different take on reverse robins)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne
Comments: 28
Kudos: 107





	1. The Art Gallery

**Author's Note:**

> Damian – 25  
> Dick – 6  
> Tim- 24  
> Steph – 24  
> Cass – 15  
> Bruce - 45
> 
> Not sure how many other people have wanted Damian to be Dick's parent in reverse robins but this is for you and mainly me.

Damian Wayne was as stubborn and unchanging as the man who sired him. He didn’t forget, never forgave and stayed in a constant state of self-imposed grief. He had once been a bat, the first side kick of the Batman and had once had a place for his anger. For a time, he had become more violent and had become a rival to the Bat himself on the streets of Gotham, had almost executed the clown and finally freed Gotham from his chaotic reign. Finally gave Jason Todd justice.

Now he sat in his art studio, glaring at the piece, and pouting his lips, it didn’t feel complete and he had days before he would show case it to the city. He sat the brush down. Tapping his cheek and tilting his head. It was calmer than his normal work, not angry and full of crooked smiles and clouded skies. It was a faded warm memory his newly adopted child had told him of, one filled with cheering crowds and a large elephant as the center piece holding up a small child in colors that felt like spring. Pastel greens, yellows and reds brightening the piece with hardly a shade of black. 

In the corner of the room, he heard whining and little giggles along with the faint whacking of a tail on tile. His family, the only ones he had now, were behind him keeping him company. Titus his loyal watch dog and his newly adopted son, Richard.

“Dami! It is good!” he felt small hands yanking at his cardigan, he didn’t shove away the touch as he had shoved so many away. Instead, he pulled him closer and then pulled him into his lap, resting his head on his child’s hair.

“No, not yet it needs something.”

Richard puffed his cheeks out deep in thought, Damian smiled, his little showman. He had spent all six years of his life in the circus, it was in his blood to please. He made a loud ‘hmmm’ and then snapped his fingers, big blue eyes brightening as he turned his head towards Damian.

“Bats! You put Bats in all your work.”

“Tt.”

“No?”

Damian shook his head and stared at the piece, no, there was no need for bats any longer. He looked down at his child and it dawned on him what it needed. A new signature for his work.

“How about a Robin instead, albi?”

Richard brightened at that nodding in agreement resting against his father and watching him begin adding in the final small detail soaring above the crowd. A small detail most would miss but an important detail to Damian. 

;

Damian hadn’t driven since he had officially hung up his cape two years ago, he had no interest driving as a civilian. After his final farewell to his family, he had become a recluse. Not until he had adopted Richard, who was always eager to get out unlike his reclusive parent, had he begun to reenter society.

The night of the Gallery he had gotten his son ready in the bright red suit he had insisted he wanted for the event. Damian would not deny him anything, he was addicted to the child’s smile and would never be the cause for it to fade. He looked dashing to Damian no matter what the press would make of it. It was a rich red and a velvet material thick enough to keep the chill of Gotham off the child, there were rose patterns on the material and muted dark green stems embroidered along the cuffs. His dress shirt was the same muted dark green.

He didn’t wish to wear a tie or bow tie and Damian didn’t force it on him. He had instead allowed his child to pick out his own tie and he had chosen a lovely satin emerald green one. A spark of color to Damian’s black suit. A bland and somber Armani suit expected of a trust fund baby, not quite the eye catcher he had allowed his child to wear.

Their newest driver had been called ahead of time and was waiting in a limo in front of their penthouse complex. Richard was clinging to his hand as the driver opened the back door for them to enter and nervously entered behind his parent not as talkative as he normal was.

“You have no reason to be worried, Albi,” Damian stated as fact helping his child settle into his booster seat next to him, “It is my event and people must act as I wish them to or they will be forced to leave. That means they are not permitted to make you uncomfortable.”

“Dami,” he began fidgeting in his seat a little as they entered Gotham’s infamous traffic, “Is your dad gonna be here?”

Damian hesitated, he didn’t wish him to be there, but it was Wayne Enterprise funding this event. He hadn’t spoken to father since that night. Could it be counted as a talk though? He had been so close, so remarkably close to decapitating the clown, but his father had stopped him. He ground his teeth. The coward. He had called him what he was, and his father disagreed. For the sake of appearance, he hadn’t publicly disowned him, but they had been dead to each other since then.

Father wished he had never sired him, and Damian wished the damned clown to give father a slow death, slower and more painful than he had forced his sibling to go through. Drake that backstabbing hypocrite had the audacity to cry and beg Damian to stay, grovel under Father’s law as he did. He had spat in his former best friend’s face, that is the last time he had ever seen his so-called family.

“I do not know,” he admitted, “If he is there, Albi, don’t feel the need to please him. You have no reason to worry. I shall be there, and I will make certain nothing goes wrong.”

Richard grabbed Damian’s hand and gave him one of his dazzling smiles ridding Damian’s thoughts of bats.

;

There was a time when Damian had wanted Gotham to burn to the ground. The city took and took, never giving anything but suffering. His older work reflected that anger. Dark gothic structures, demonic eyes popping from the darkness and the only color being red. Not the soft pastel he would use after he formally adopted Richard, but very loud and consuming angry reds of flame and blood. 

He swirled the whiskey in his hand staring at the swarm of bats forming dark clouds over gothic architecture; a cavern in the ground glowing with hell fire about to incriminate the dark scene. He took a heavy drink, draining his glass and clanking the ice around loudly to catch the eye of the server who immediately took the cup and offered him a fresh glass from his tray.

“I don’t like this one,” Richard told him looking up at him with his cute pout. Damian chuckled pulling him close to him and messing with his unruly hair.

“Stay close if you want to wander, Albi.” 

Richard hummed loud enough to be heard over the crowd and looked over the side of the railing down to the main floor on of the balcony with a cheeky smile.

“Not here, Richard,” he stated firmly taking a slow sip of his whiskey and giving his son the look that meant he wouldn’t be getting sugar this week if he didn’t comply. Richard smiled brightly and instead began skipping along the arch and easily sliding between guests standing along the low incline on his way to the bottom floor and likely the refreshment stand.

“He’s cute.”

His grip tightened on his glass and his expression hardened, damn Drake, not only was he here uninvited but he had managed to sneak up on him. He glanced over to the other man; he hadn’t missed his stupid smiles. His smile dropped as he stared at the painting, taking it in.

“Is this the old church? The one that used to be near the Wayne Memorial site?”

Damian said nothing, clicking the ice against glass, staring at the fires of hell about to take the building. That anger he felt while painting was slowly surfacing again.

“In fact, so many of your pieces on this level have structures I can’t help but think of that place. In fact, that one over there.”

Damian followed Drake’s pointing to finger to the piece next to the one they were admiring, a brighter and angrier one. Large puddles of water reflecting the angry red sky leading up to a burning gothic structure burning to the ground, ash peppering through the red and a single dead bat laying drowned in one of the puddles.

“Looks like the church too.”

“Tt.”

The place of his failure, the church he had found his brother at that night. It was a block away from his biological mother’s apartment, Damian hadn’t trusted her and wasn’t about to willingly allow a child to see her alone.

(“You can’t control me, Damian! Guess what?! We aren’t even brothers! I’m not even a fucking Wayne! Just some fucking charity case your daddy fished from these gutters..”)

Physically he felt Drake’s hand on his shoulder but deep in his mind, he felt Jason’s biological mother shooting him in the shoulder to keep him out of the way so she could sell her own son to the Joker. He commanded himself not to flinch at Drake’s light touch but was ashamed he did anyway.

“We miss him too, you know,” Drake whispered but Damian shoved away his affection, turning from him and marching down the arch way. He needed to find his son, he wasn’t about to leave him in a den of bats alone.

“Damian…”

He pushed past several people, impeccably dressed socialites gasping in audacity at his behavior, talking among themselves about Bruce’s poor parenting. He couldn’t argue with their words, his father’s piss poor parenting had put his youngest in the grave at fifteen. He would be damned if he put his son in that position.

He paused seeing an unfamiliar young girl sitting with his son on a bench in the corner away from the mingling crowds. She wasn’t a bat, not any bat he knew, a teenage girl in a simple yellow dress showing her phone to his laughing son.

“That’s Cass,” he sneered as Stephanie Brown approached him, she was hardly dressed for this event. Just a simple pair of blue jeans and purple sweater, blonde hair pulled up in a messy bun. Damian knew she had shown up like that to irk him and him personally. Being here at all would irritate him enough but to show up like that, he felt his blood boiling.

“Not that you would know, haven’t seen you around recently. Not like you care that you have a new sister. You didn’t even care to inform us you brought a new face into the family.”

Damian sneered towards her; he was about to say something scathing. Maybe something he would regret later; he knew how to hurt these people. He knew how to hit old wounds and dig his nails into them until they bled anew. Words died in his mouth though as another person sat on the other side of his son.

Stephanie rolled her eyes as he began shoving the crowd aside to get to his child faster, the bat himself was here and he was making his move. 

“Hello, Richard, I’m Bruce Wayne, Damian’s father.”

Richard smiled sheepishly up at him.

“Only Dami calls me Richard, you can call me Dick if you want to.”

Father smiled and offered his hand but before he could reach them, Richard flung his arms around the man’s neck shocking him.

“Richard…” he said, words failing him.

“Dami!” the boy cried jumping up and crashing into his parent who was staring at his father with a murderous glare. His father looked away in shame as he should but the young girl placed her hand gently on his.

“Your dad did show up, Dami! Cassy told me he’s nice and your sister is wonderful! Why didn’t you tell me can’t talk?! I wanna learn to talk with my hands with her too!”

He was babbling as he clung happily to his parent. Damian needed to answer him, he should answer his child, but he couldn’t form words around him. He had no words for father and the man knew it.

“Damian,” father began slowly, “I know you didn’t invite me but I needed to be here for you for your big day. I know how much your art has always meant to you.”

Damian still couldn’t respond, refusing to let his struggling child down.

“It’s all a bit drab for my liking,” Stephanie stated nonchalantly bringing herself back into the conversation, “But I love the circus pieces on the bottom level.”

“The elephant one is my favorite!” Richard piped up smiling at Stephanie who smiled back.

“I think I like that one best too, chum,” father said smiling at Richard but not attempting to touch him with Damian so close by, “I was hoping to purchase it for my office, Damian.”

“Tt.”

Damian didn’t continue the conversation he turned on his heels clinging tightly to his son as he marched away. Richard objected but he didn’t turn back to his father. He couldn’t turn back to that family and their dark secrets now that he had a spot of light in his life.


	2. Batman Watching p1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick Grayson notices the Batman watching him and his adopted parent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the nice comments! I'm glad you all enjoy! 
> 
> This series won't be chronological but a series of one shots from varying perspectives.

Dick had first noticed the man on accident.

He had been sitting outside on their balcony patio, trying to tempt a stray cat with a French fry Titus was whining for when he spotted him. He hadn’t meant to yell but it didn’t seem human, like a large demon shrouded by shadows watching him intently from the building across from their penthouse.

Damian had rushed out and swept him into his arms, glaring into the empty night. He caught sight of the figure as well and clung to Dick tighter.

“He won’t harm you, Albi,” he soothed walking inside and locking the door once Titus was in as well, “He is immoral, but he has his code.”

“Code?”

“Yes, Batman doesn’t harm the innocent unless they are part of his war and we are not part of that.”

Damian pressed their foreheads together before sitting him back on the ground. He proceeded to lock up their home and close all the curtains. This was part of their nightly routine, but Damian was acting different. He was tenser then normal, quieter and withdrawn. He walked into the training area and shut the door behind him without another word to Dick.

Dick didn’t see his parent the rest of the evening.

He lay in his racecar bed restless that night clinging to Elanor and taking a brief glance out his window he frowned seeing the shape of Batman again gliding past his window.

;

It was raining and Damian was late.

Dick huffed, jumping into one of the large puddles near the entrance of his school. He glanced over seeing a frog and smiled at him, he slipped around the large gathering of kids impatiently stomping in the puddles and looking frantically around for their guardians.

He glanced behind at the teachers talking among themselves and crowded close under the knee wall. They were keeping an eye on the young students in their care in the best way they could with everyone jumping around and running between each other to get into the awaiting vehicles lined up in the pickup zone.

Dick had once asked Damian why this school wasn’t like normal schools and didn’t have the large yellow busses and he was forced to wear the scratchy school uniforms. Damian informed him he would never put him in public school, an heir to the Wayne family would only attend private academies. 

He briefly wondered why it was important to be a Wayne to Damian considering he didn’t interact with any of his family, but the thought was lost seeing the frog once more. He was trying to get around the hoard of students who nearly trampled him. Dick huffed at one boy’s rudeness as he almost squished the creature before scooping him easily into his hands.

He glanced around at the line of backed up cars and around the school’s large marble sign with its name and emblem. Damian was always good at knowing where he went and had a knack for finding him when he wandered so he just shrugged as he went a short distance down the sidewalk. Gotham Prep was located right next to wealthy public park and Dick considered that to be a safer place for the animal then the busy sidewalk.

He ran the short distance, making sure to splash into every puddle, and nearly landed face first in the mud as he skidded into the entrance gate of the park. He barely caught himself before he fell and grumbled in annoyance at his form, he should do better then that. He kicked a loose pebble on the cobblestone walkway as he marched further into the park.

He ran his fingers along the frog’s back as he croaked in annoyance and struggled in Dick’s grasp. He jogged off the path into the small meadow of trees before swatting down next to a large oak tree he liked to climb and carefully setting the frog down.

He watched with an amused smile as another frog joined his frog under the tree and they began croaking at each other. He knew Damian was going to be mad at him for just wandering off, but it seemed worth it seeing the frog safe with a new friend.

He was about to turn back to go find Damian when a large hand smacked over his face. He kicked and squealed soundlessly as he hoisted into the air by an unknown assailant. Dick was a small child and knew he didn’t have a chance as the man tightened his hold on him. A few tears slipped down, he needed to go to Dami. Dami needed him. He couldn’t breathe as he struggled harder against the unrelenting hold, he needed Dami.

“Are you lost little boy?” the man snickered, his breathe hot against his ear, “I recognize you from the pictures from daddy’s art gallery. Yer Wayne’s grand baby, aren’t you? I should help you get back to your grandpa…with a small price of course.”

The large man growled as something forced him to lurch forward, giving Dick enough leeway to throw himself forward and hit the ground not thinking clearly enough to catch himself into a roll like he normally would rough housing with Dami.

He forced himself to jump up despite the pain but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the man’s hand grabbing at him again. The man sneered at him trying to yank him back to him but not avoiding the punch from the blur of black. Dick took the opportunity to wiggle free from the grasp again and run around the tree away from the man’s grasp. He knew he wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun the large man if he got up again or even escape another larger man if the other man meant harm, he knew the only way out was up.

He jumped up to the low hanging branch of the tree and quickly scrambled to the higher branches. He only paused once and glance down. Without the rain and his own tears blinding his vision, he recognized the black blur as Batman.

He seemed to have knocked the man unconscious and was now putting handcuffs on his prone form.

“You can come down,” Batman called to him. Dick frowned; he didn’t sound as scary as he looked. He sounded like Damian when he attempted to get the stray cats to come him. Dick probably should have taken example from those cats and ran, but foolishly, despite what had just happened, he climbed down to the Batman. He had his hand held out and Dick hesitantly took it.

“Why are you here alone?” Batman asked him firmly a frown on his face, but it didn’t hold any malice. He wasn’t different from Damian when he was mad Dick did impulsive things.

Dick didn’t answer at first, staring at the ground and briefly glancing at the subdued man covered in mud from his scuffle with batman.

“Can you take me home?”

Batman nodded but he hadn’t needed to ask him to take him home, they both paused hearing the loud pounding of feet on the cobblestone.

“Richard Grayson!” Damian screamed, the fear clearly there overshadowing whatever anger he felt for his child.

“Dami!” Dick screamed immediately letting go of Batman and racing into Dami’s open arms. He squeezed him close to his chest and Dick knew it wasn’t the rain soaking his hair, Dami was crying. He made Dami cry.

“Albi…do not ever make me worry like that again!”

Dick opened his mouth to address Batman but glancing behind them as Damian carried him to their awaiting vehicle, Batman was gone.

For the next several nights Dick was too frightened to sleep in his bed and knew sleeping with Damian brought his parent comfort as well.

Damian hired a tutor the next morning and he began home schooling, but each night after Damian tucked him into bed, he would go to the window and smile seeing the Batman watching over him and Dami.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment if you enjoy! thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Give a comment if you liked and want more


End file.
